What’s the Real Problem? Some families are valued while others are demonized

I’ll admit. I’m totally a legal nerd. I love the Fourteenth Amendment so much that I took a course in law school devoted solely to the amendment. I think you should love it too! The Fourteenth Amendment contains the Citizenship Clause which overruled the Supreme Court decision that said Blacks could not be citizens of the United States. It also contains the Due Process clause which prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness. Finally, it has the Equal Protection Clause, which requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction That’s why all of us should be concerned about what some powerful and radically conservative lawmakers are trying to do to the Fourteenth amendment – turn it into a bludgeon to beat up on women and families.

Yet these attempts to change the amendment reveal the utter hypocrisy by those who support these measures. For example, Kentucky freshman Senator Rand Paul had an almost singular focus on the Fourteenth Amendment at the beginning of his term. First, he co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act, which would establish that a person’s life begins at conception and, thus declaring fetuses to be legal persons protected under the Fourteenth Amendment. Paul hopes to override the constitutional right to an abortion that the Supreme Court found in Roe v. Wade. Second, Paul also co-sponsored a resolution that would change the Fourteenth amendment to prevent children born to illegal immigrants from gaining automatic citizenship.

The two different approaches to the Fourteenth Amendment reveal a subtext of whose children are wanted and valued. The fetuses of white women are offered constitutional protection, while the lives of immigrant women of color are dismissed and demonized. In the United States, immigrants are denied benefits while being blamed for environmental degradation, the recession, and lack of jobs. They are also portrayed as coming to the United States solely for the purpose of having children who are then raised to be terrorists. Anti-immigrant advocates are the same people who spout pro-life rhetoric and claim to be protecting family values.

However, the families that they value are of a specific color, economic class, and immigration status. The large family size of people of color is criticized while the tradition of having many children that is part of the Mormon and Catholic faith are not even questioned. The impact of the racist and disparate treatment is not limited to immigrants, but also extends to people of color in the United States who have origins in countries that are the target of these anti-immigrant zealots. What does it mean for non-white families who are trying to establish themselves in America? For children, who have grown up in the United States but have a cultural connection to other countries? Why do some people have to clarify that they are American, whereas for other people it is assumed?

I am a child of immigrant parents. While my parents’ path to citizenship was different than those targeted by anti-immigrant advocates, my family is South Asian. Our Sikh community has been the target of hate crimes. After September 11th, we were advised to put American flags on our cars and our houses to advertise our patriotism. The United States is my home. I grew up here. I got married here. I am going to raise my child here. However, I still need to answer questions about where I am really from and why I speak English so well. In some spaces, I am afraid of being the target of a hate crime. When I think of raising my child, I think about how I am going to handle racism, sexism, and threats to our safety that derive from some notion of what it means to be American and the assumption that we are not.

Changing the Fourteenth Amendment to take out birthright citizenship hurts not only immigrant women and their children, but those of us with strong ties to immigrant communities. Growing up in a bicultural environment is a gift. It is the chance to be enriched by customs and traditions of two different communities. Instead of helping to celebrate the diversity of America, anti-immigrant activists want to punish those that do not fit into their narrow perception of who should be American. And that narrow vision… is the real problem.